vent of Sufdal, under the name of Helena, with the Princefs Mary, fifter to the Czar, fhould afcend the throne, and reign conjointly with his fon Alexis. Eudocia and Mary were weak enough to believe in this impofture, and were fo far perfuaded of its veracity, that Helena quitted her religious habit, and refumed the name of Eudocia; infifting on being treated as Emprefs, and ordering the name of her rival Catherine to be omitted in the public prayers of the church. The Treasurer of the convent objecting against this behaviour, Eudocia haughtily replied, that as Peter had punished the Strelitzes who had infulted his mother, fo would her fon Alexis chaftife every one that fhould affront her. She ordered the Treafurer accordingly to be confined to his cell, and an officer named Glebo, to be introduced into the convent. This officer Eudocia made use of as the instrument to effect her defigns, attaching him to her fervice by personal favours. Glebo foon fpread through the town of Sufdal, and its neighbouring country, the prediction of Doritheus. The three months being elapfed, Eudocia reproached the Bishop, that the Czar was still alive. True, replied Doritheus, the fins of my father, who is in Purgatory, and has advifed me of his fituation, prevent the accomplishment of the prediction. On this, Eudocia ordered a thousand maffes to be faid for the foul of the deceased; which the Bishop told her would certainly have the effect. Accordingly, about a month after, he came to acquaint her, that his father had already got his head out of Purgatory; in a month after that, he had got out as far as the waift; and in fome time longer, ftuck only by the feet. To difengage his heels, however, was the grand dif ficulty; and, when this fhould be effected, the Czar would moft infallibly die. In the mean time the Princess Mary had furrendered herself to the Bishop, as Eudocia had done to Glebo, on condition that the Prophet's father fhould immediately be got out of Purgatory, and the prediction be fulfilled. It was on the faith of thefe predictions, that Alexis proceeded fuch lengths in contumacy to his father. A difcovery, however, being made of this fcandalous and fuperftitious intrigue, Doritheus and Glebo were arrested; and the letters of the Princefs Mary to the former, and of Eudocia to the latter, read publicly to the Senate. The Czarina and the Princes were afterwards confined in feparate convents; while Doritheus, Glebo, and other accomplices, as well as those who were privy to the evafion of Alexis, were put to the question; his Confeffor, Governor, and Master of his houthold, all expiring under the torture.

It is admirable, as our Author obferves, that during the agitation which fo horrible a catastrophe muft occafion, the attention of Peter was never diverted from thofe objects which tended to

the

the political happinefs of his people. Of this, his various re'gulations and improvements in the commerce, laws, and religion of his country, are remarkable proofs. Mr. Voltaire confiders thefe feveral fubjects apart, in his ufual curfory way; after which he goes on to give an account of the negociation of Aland, the death of Charles XII. and the peace of Neustadt. He then gives a relation of the fubfequent revolutions in Perfia; finishing his work with an account of the coronation of Catherine, the death of Peter, and the manner in which the former fucceeded to the Crown of Ruffia.

But, having extended this article to a confiderable length, we fhall here lay down this volume: having only to obferve farther, that the Author hath annexed to his hiftory, three original papers, printed from the tranflations made by the exprefs order of Peter; being the fentence paffed on Alexis; the treaty of the peace at Neuftadt; and the ordinance of the Czar for the coronation of the Empress Catherine,

Obfervations fur les Sçavans Incredules, et fur quelque-uns de leurs ecrits. Par J. F. De Luc. 8vo. Geneva.

Remarks on learned Infidels, and on fome of their Writings.

I

T is now many years fince the well-meaning and refpectable Author of this performance, took up the pen against the Sceptics and Infidels of his time; one of his earliest attacks being made upon the celebrated Writer of the Fable of the Bees. His criticism on that piece was printed about fixteen years ago, and is incorporated with propriety in the present work; which is defigned as a general reply to what has been advanced by the principal Writers on the fide of Infidelity. Mr. De Luc is, indeed, by no means a match, either in fcience or literature, for fome of those Goliahs, whom he hath, nevertheless, ventured to encounter the fpirit, however, which hath animated him to engage with thefe Philiftines, is fo very commendable, and his behaviour to the enemy fo fair and candid, that whether his performance may command fuccefs or not, it is certain it fully deferves it.

Our Author fets qut with obferving, that to every one who enters on the examination of the facred writings with a fuitable difpofition, the divine infpiration of them, becomes daily more and more evident. He then confiders the causes of that contempt in which the Pagans held the Hebrews; and infers, that thofe very caufes prove the divine inspiration of the Old Teftament. On this occafion he takes an opportunity to cen

fure

fure the mistakes of the Authors of Les Mours* and Les Penfees Philofophiques. The latter of these ingenious Writers had cenfured the fuppofed abfurdity of putting queftions to children, learning their catechifm, which are with difficulty answered by the most profound Philofophers. For instance, Qu'est-ce que Dieu? question qu'on fait aux enfans, & à laquelle les Philofophes ont bien de la peine a repondre. On this paffage our Author remarks, that the question here put to children, is not in expectation of an answer to it from them, but only as a leading propofition, in the folution of which we inftruct them betimes in those truths which God hath revealed in his word, relating to himself, It is neceffary, therefore, to make a diftinction between the fituation of Chriftians, who are fo happy as to poffefs a divine revelation, and the circumftances of mankind in general before the coming of the Meffiah. The pagan Philofophers, bewildered in the labyrinth of Polytheism, had loft that fimplicity of ideas, originally given them by the Creator, of his nature and exist. ence; in fo much that Simonides, one of the wifeft among them, wās fő embarrassed by the question, What is God? that, after meditating a confiderable while, he very frankly declared, he could not answer it. In thofe times, I confefs, fays our Author, it had been abfurd to put fuch a question to children as their greatest Philofophers could not refolve; but children properly educated in the principles of Chriftianity, have, by means of the Scriptures, the fame advantage in this refpect over Simonides, as a Refiner's apprentice hath over Archimedes in making an effay of metals. The circumfpection of Simonides, in a point of this importance, gives reafon alfo to think, that the greateft Philofophers among the Heathens, deduced from the Hebrews their finest sentiments of the Divinity. Hence Mr. De Luc infers, that it is effentially neceffary to inftruct our children early, in those adorable perfections of the Deity, which are revealed to us in the Scriptures: concluding, that if the young Hottentot, spoken of by Rouffeau, had been really educated in fuch a chriftian-like manner, he would never have left his Patron, Vanderstel, to rejoin his compatriot brutes of the Cape.

There is one objection, however, to the very early attempts to inftruct children, in principles of fuch importance, to which our Author hath not fully replied; and this is what Mr, Rouffeau hath pretty largely expatiated on, in his Treatife on Education, viz. the impoffibility of making them understand what is faid to them; in confequence of which they get by rote

Mr. Touffaint. This Gentleman, however, hath fince made an apology for all the paffages in this work, which feem to favour Scepticifm. See the foreign Articles in the Review for March, 1763.

a form

a form of words, of which they never afterwards give themselves the trouble to acquire the meaning. No valid objection, indeed, can poffibly be made against inftructing Chriftian children in the truths contained in the facred writings; but the grand queftion, is whether they are, or can be, really inftructed in these truths before the understanding arrives to a certain degree of maturity. Both the Author of Penfées Philofophiques and. of Emilius, may poffibly carry their objection too far; but there is certainly fome difficulty in it, which we fhould be glad to fee fairly obviated by the Champions of the Chriftian cause.

Our Author proceeds to confider fome other reflections of the fame Writer; after which he attacks Mr. Voltaire, in regard to what that celebrated Hiftorian had advanced in his Melanges de Litterature, &c. on the fubject of the apoftate Julian. In his obfervations on this head, Mr. De Luc hath certainly detected this inaccurate Genius in fome little inconfiftencies and hiftorical mistakes; the character of Julian, however, is very far from being cleared up, in so fatisfactory a manner as could be wished. It is, indeed, very probable, that, be the facts related of this Prince as they will, he was neither fo bad, nor fo good a man as his enemies and friends would reprefent him. But this is ever the cafe with perfonal characters, when they are once made the subject of party difpute. Thus, when Mr. Voltaire represents Julian as le premier des homines, ou du moins pour le fecond, and as le modèle des Rois, we cannot help fufpecting, that a fpirit of oppofition to those who ftigmatize him as the worst of Princes, and moft impious of human Beings, may have carried him beyond the bounds of truth and moderation. Be this as it may, Mr.. Voltaire would have had better pretenfions to credit, had he proceeded to fhew the inconfiftency of the Hiftorians in relating the facts charged on this Emperor, and not contented himself with merely aflerting the improbability of thofe facts, from their inconfiftency with the character he himself firft conceives of his Hero. On the whole, this part of our Author's performance is well worthy of perusal. "

After fome farther obfervations on the Penfeés Philofophiques, Mr. De Luc takes into confideration fome exceptionable paflages in the famous Sermon of Rabin Akib; pretended to be written by a Jew, on occafion of the Autos de fé, inhumanly celebrated. at Lisbon; and calculated, among other views, to invalidate the teftimony which the actual difperfion of the Jews evidently: offers in favour of Chriftianity. He next confiders the affinity. between natural religion, as dictated by reafon, and revealed religion as deduced from the facred Scriptures. The Author of Les Penfées Philofophiques, fays he, mifapplies that sugges tion of Cicero, viz. that what all will allow to merit the second

place

place, fhould be ranked in the firft. Thus, addressing himself to a Chinese, he afks, "What religion he [the Chinefe] conceives to be the beft, next to his own?-The answer is, natural religion. Again, repeating the queftion to the Muffelman, he makes the like anfwer. To the Chriftians, he fays, what religion must be true, if Chriftianity be not fo? They answer, that of the Jews. But to the Jews, what can be the true religion, if Judaifm be falfe?-Naturalifm. In this manner natural religion is admitted by univerfal confent."

To expose the fophiftry contained in this thought, fays Mr. ́ De Luc, it is neceffary to diftinguifh two kinds of natural religion; the one, that of the world, introduced by human ignorance and depravity; and the other, that which we derive by a proper.ufe of our reafon, from God, and which is conformable to revelation. The Reflector's arguments, therefore, reft, fays he, on a fallacious foundation. Chriftianity differs, indeed, from that corrupt fpecies of natural religion, which it is profeffedly calculated to eradicate from the heart of man; but at the fame time it is itself inftituted to re-establish the true natural religion in all its purity. Chriftianity, therefore, should have the first place, were it for no other reafon than that it is really natural religion carried to its higheft degree of perfection and purity. The manner in which our Author illuftrates this affinity between natural and revealed religion, is fo fimple and plausible, that we cannot pafs it over without quoting a paffage or two, for the satisfaction of the Reader.

"Reafon is the moft excellent of all the faculties with which the Creator hath exclufively endued the human mind. When duly cultivated, therefore, it is the torch which lights him to take a profpect of the univerfe, and in the contemplation of it, to difcover the fupreme Author of his exiftence, and of all the bleffings attending fo ineftimable a gift. This difcovery, however circumfcribed and limited, ought naturally to induce mankind to pay their Creator and Benefactor, all that homage which is fo juftly his due. Now it is, in the payment of that adoration we owe to the Supreme Being; in our affiduity to receive with gratitude his abundant mercies; in our ftrict obfervation of that law which is the foundation of all morality, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, that confifts the real natural religion which comes to us from God, by the way of reafon, independent of revelation. But the unhappy prevalence which the greater part of mankind have permitted their irregular paffi- › ons to gain over their reafon, having vitiated and depraved it, it became abfolutely neceffary for God to declare his will, in a man-.ner independent of their corrupt understandings. This has been effected by the miffion of Jefus Chrift into the world, who,

both